In February 2017 we supported the Foundation of Goodness in Seenigama, Sri Lanka
The Foundation of Goodness is a charity which changes the lives of rural communities which continue to suffer from the long-term consequences of the devastating 2004 Tsunami. Many thousands of children were orphaned as a result of this disaster, and a huge amount of work and funding has been devoted towards providing them and all members of village communities with housing, education and sporting opportunities.
Check out the Foundation's work.
Some talented young Sri Lankan cricketers played in our President's Match at Penn Street on Saturday 17th September 2016.
This match marked the beginning of our fundraising for the Foundation.
We were invited as a club to visit the Foundation on 20th February 2017, at the end of our cricket tour, and at that time presented the Foundation with a cheque from our club for over £10,000.
Attached is a letter we received from the Foundation on our return.
Cricketers count in hundreds; a century or double century, a hundred hundreds, a hundred catches, a hundred wickets. At the turn of the 20th century, sport dominated a young man’s social life - this becoming known as the “Golden Age of Cricket”. So to that generation, centuries certainly mattered.
These men, who held the game in such regard, were soon to be called upon to make sacrifices that still haunt our national conscience, with our forefathers be they survivors, widows or offspring swearing they would never forget.
On August 4th 2014 it was a hundred years since Britain and her Empire (as it was then) entered into a European based war that had been developing throughout the summer of 1914. After this, young men and women from all over the globe volunteered in their thousands to defend their nation’s honour and in Britain they were convinced they would be home for Christmas. Sadly this was to prove true only when The Armistice was signed just before the Christmas of 1918.
After 4 years the casualty numbers were astounding; 10 million combatant and 7 million civilian deaths directly attributable to the conflict, with 20 million wounded, many maimed and large numbers of these dying in the following decades due to the effects of the war. Each one of these a son, husband, father, brother, wife, mother, sister or daughter.
In the face of this unfathomable horror, the love for cricket endured and in the following years the sport grew in the hearts of the Commonwealth (as the Empire became) to now remind us that competition is healthy if added with humility, respect and a sense of fair play.
Those who promised they would not forget hoped they had seen the war that would end all wars, but sadly our forces have been called upon to fight in several conflicts since, with Afghanistan taking a heavy toll on today’s youth.
So after a Century, it was time that Cricket remembered its lost sons.
Penn Street Cricket Club has existed since 1884, with us playing under the shadow of the village memorial which lists Frederick Wingrove along with 17 others from the village and surrounding area who died during the Great War.
Frederick died on the 15th September 1917, making him 22 years old at his death in the 3rd Ypres Campaign. Club records show an F. Wingrove who played in 1912. Though we cannot be certain, we believe that this was the Frederick Wingrove listed on the war memorial. We also believe that his father Thomas played in the first ever recorded Penn Street match in 1884 and his brother Frank was a key all-rounder for the team following Great War, rising to the role of Club Captain. We also know that a blood relative of Frederick is active in our current side, scoring three fifties in the past two seasons.
On 4th August 2014, a group of Penn Street team members arrived in Ypres/ Ieper after cycling almost 200 miles from our ground with the team flag, to prove to the world that even after a century of this terrible war starting, the achievements of this lost generation of cricketers has not been forgotten. Our efforts raised valuable funds to help those in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth affected by wars, old and new.
14 cyclists from Penn Street Cricket Club cycled almost 200 miles to lay a wreath at Menin Gate on the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War. It was an experience that will stay with us forever.
We met with great support along the way, and wonderful hospitality. Through Justgiving, donations in the pub, the boat and along the way directly into the RBL collection tins, we raised almost £10,000 for RBL and Help for Heroes.
Thanks to everyone who took part, who organised, who supported, who cheered us on from the side. A true team effort that proves that we may be small, but we are still a Particularly Special Cricket Club.
For every beginning, there must be an end. Following on from the success of the bike ride to commemorate the start of the war, it was only right to mark the close.
This time, we walked round the outside of Ypres, visiting some of the key graveyards where thousands and thousands of men are buried or have their names on memorial walls, including Tyne Cot, Hooge Crater and the Langemark German Cemetery
As well as visiting the graveyards and paying our respects, we attended the Menin Gate and took part in the daily tribute to the fallen, laying wreaths and flying our flag in the centre of the tribute.
Mark Lander was our flag bearer, Penn Street cricketer and great-great-nephew of Fredrick Wingrove, the man who started this all off, and whose name appears on both the Menin Gate and on the Penn Street War Memorial which overlooks our ground.
Lest we forget.
From humble beginnings, our club’s charity cricket match developed over almost 20 years into a significant annual event.
In 1983, June and Patsy McGuinness, landlords at The Squirrel, launched an annual cricket match with great enthusiasm to aid the charity work done by The Lord’s Taverners, the UK cricket and sports disability charity, and various local charities. Played against a side called “The Old Swallows“, this game was preceded by a village fete in front of The Squirrel and a juniors game in the interval involving our club’s young Squirrels. It also featured celebrity attendees.
In Ian Jones, we were lucky to have a player with considerable contacts inside and outside of cricket circles. This included Clive Radley, the Middlesex and England cricketer and Head Coach at Lord's, who came to captain a team under the Lord's Taverners banner. Clive has since been a steady supporter of Penn Street and is now one of our valued Vice Presidents
This all meant that in 1990, our charity matches were able to expand, inviting a broad range of high profile celebrities to attend the event and play at Penn Street in the Lord's Taverners team, as well as introducing and encouraging corporate sponsors.
Celebrities who played on or visited our hallowed turf included:
Non-sporting celebrities included Johnny Ball, Bob Bevan, Rory Bremner, Faith Brown, June Brown, Gavin Campbell, Leslie Crowther, Rob Curling, John Kettley, Sian Lloyd, Nicholas Parsons, Pauline Quirke, Chris Tarrant and Vinnie Jones.
Corporate sponsors who supported these annual matches included Amersham International, Arjo Wiggins, BOC Group, Dun and Bradstreet, HSBC and McBride.
In total , we raised around £150,000 for The Lord’s Taverners, Amersham Chesham & District Multiple Sclerosis Society, Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy, Child Growth Foundation, Curzon School Charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Macmillan Cancer Relief Fund and Rushymead Hospice.
The lion’s share of our fundraising came from donations from corporate sponsors with raffles, rug collections and other club fundraising initiatives also making valuable contributions. As the charity match became established, we erected a marquee on the village common to allow our corporate sponsors to entertain their guests, together with the teams on the day.
The key to the success of this charity fundraising was the considerable hard work of all involved, especially our club members. It was a remarkable team effort with a long list of unsung heroes. We thoroughly earnt the accolade “The Little Club with a Big Heart“.
We even got a Lord’s Taverners minibus dedicated to our club !
The matches attracted large crowds (with all the associated car parking challenges) and significant media coverage, including coverage by Sky TV.
As our former President, Frank Krinks, observed “the charity cricket matches have certainly placed Penn Street Cricket Club on the map“.
Penn Street Cricket Club would like to acknowledge the support of HS2 Groundworks funding and the Beaconsfield and Chepping Wye Community Board in the building of our new net facilities.
Thank you to Fleur and Ady White at Home Preservation Services for their continued sponsorship. This includes providing shirts to our entire Junior section and their coaches, as well as providing T20 shirts to our Barbados squad.
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